On Sunday, the clothing bank at the car park at the rear of Greenwell Lane was set alight, causing around £100 of damage. Then on Monday, a number of rubbish bins in the area were on fire.

Inspector Truscott said: “Anyone who was in the vicinity at the time of these incidents and saw anything suspicious, please call 101.

“This wanton vandalism is to be thoroughly condemned and we are making every effort to identify the offenders. We will be putting some patrols out and doing some intelligence-gathering activity.”

Mr Biagioni added: “This sort of behaviour must be stopped, so I am urging people to be vigilant.”

Mr Biagioni witnessed the bin fires at around 6.30pm on Monday. He doesn’t know how they were started, but he said that he had seen three youths in the area before the incident, but couldn’t be sure it was them.

He added: “There seems to have been more petty vandalism in Alnwick recently.”